Is anybody out there?

It is approaching two years since the post of head of the European Commission’s representation in London fell vacant and the vacancy is still unfilled.

It is more than a year since the EU’s staff tribunal ruled invalid the appointment of Ierotheos Papadopoulos as head of the Commission’s representation in Athens and he was downgraded to acting head.

It seems that the Commission thinks that not much has been happening in Greece and that the Athens post is unimportant. Could it also be that arguments in London over financial-services regulation and the formation of a coalition government are of no interest to the folks back in Brussels?

While Reijo Kemppinen, the previous head of representation in London, has had time to move from one job (the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) to another (the Council of Ministers), all that has happened in London is that Sarah Lambert, the number two, has moved closer to her deadline for rotating out of London, ensuring that the handover, whenever it comes, will be less than smooth. She will be moving on to be the deputy head of the Commission’s representation in Madrid.

The identity of Kemppinen’s successor is still not clear. Shortlists wax and wane. The interviews drag on. A recent improbable rumour was that Martin Territt, head of the representation in Dublin, might be a contender, since some in Brussels give him credit for Ireland’s ‘Yes’ vote on the Lisbon treaty (apparently they don’t blame him for the initial ‘No’ vote, nor for the economic recession, which just might have had a greater impact on the second referendum than the Commission’s representation in Dublin).

Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for citizenship, has acquired responsibility for the representations, and looks likely to impose herself soon. There are plenty of opportunities: there are now ‘acting’ heads of representations in Paris, Warsaw, Prague, Vilnius, Tallinn and Valletta.